Snohomish County Septic Issue

[Kelli Thomas]

Hi everyone! I'm a new real estate agent and encountered a tricky septic situation. I have a listing coming up on a 5 bedroom house. However, the Snohomish Co Assessor lists it as 4 bedrooms. I was also told I can only list the home for the amount of bedrooms the septic is approved for. I went out to the county, did some digging and found the initial application of the home only lists 3 bedrooms. 

I talked to the seller and they were told it would cost $20K to have the septic updated from 3 bedrooms to 4 bedrooms. We are hoping to list the home as a 4 bedroom + office. 

Another piece to add to the complication, is the septic was moved to the other side of the driveway by the previous owner. However I did not find any documentation for that. Is it possible the home is actually approved for 4 bedrooms? I'm not sure how to find out. 

Have any of you encountered issues like this? What did you do to resolve them? I'm feeling a bit stuck with this. 3 bedrooms versus 4 or 5 in this market makes a big difference. Especially when there are actually 5 bedrooms in the home (closets and windows in all).